Airgid: After the war, she helped to rebuild Miletos to its former glory. Yet it wasn't a perfect situation for her, as there were many who questioned her on why she didn't help the Liberation Army more after they aider her in her own country. She never gave a response to their probes, and the leaders of her wartime allies never gave her the same hard time that the casual historian did, as they understood the difficulties inherent in caring for a nation as badly broken as Miletos.
Eslene: Killed Chapter 77, The Wine Runs Red. Her loss was greatly mourned by her family and friends in public, and by Faval in private. As a response to her senseless death, many myths were created around her and a number of new things in Miletos were named in her honor.
Rand and Daisy: This duo appeared in Jugdral nevermore. For a while, they found a sanctuary from his mortal enemy. Eventually, he obtained a way to revenge himself and find peace. Meanwhile, Daisy continued to travel with him, but eventually learned of her brother's death and learned to make peace with it. She moved on and fell in love with an archer from a distant land.
Cumha: He, along with Salem were among the first of Loptyr decent to be granted amnesty in the restored Jugdral. His non-creepy way of performing necromancy actually endeared him to people, as it allowed them to commune with deceased relatives and be granted closure. Thus, he died peacefully of old age in his public home.
Leif and Nanna: The Thracian peninsula was at long last unified. Thanks to Leonster's restoration and Thracia's downfall, this region finally found peace. Leif was chosen as the first sovereign of the nation of New Thracia by the ardent wish of the people. His wife Nanna was also quite popular with them, often being referred to as "Princess Nanna", even after becoming the mother of seven, the first of which was born around the time of New Thracia's establishment. Instead of being named after a person, this little girl was instead named Fianna, after the Thracian town that safeguarded her parents at the end of their childhood days, thus ensuing that its name would forever be remembered.
Altena: By the now King Leif's request, she was entrusted with the reconstruction of the former territory of Thracia. It is said that she loved, and continued to love all her life the Thracian soil that raised her, which ultimately informed her decision on her husband, tensions between them or not. Their relationship worked out in the end, however, thus strengthening the link between the formerly warring nations. Her children were compared to Dain and Noba in how close they were, except with the exclusion of the tragic end to their tale.
Finn: The ever faithful knight served King Leif for the rest of his days. Though, for a short while after the war, he disappeared into the Yied only to return empty handed... to discover that while he had been gone, his quarry had been discovered in Nordion. At first, Lachesis didn't want to forgive his final words to her, but upon seeing how broken a shell he had become in her absence, she decided to return to him, and the world-weary knight finally had some peace.
Asaello: Killed Chapter 83 A Long Awaited Bonfire. Faval asked for two statues to be made in his honor, and had one put in his hometown. He felt that it was the least he could do to make up for the way that his life had ended. Faval did eventually find another way to help make up for his death as well.
Hannibal: Until his death, he had a place in King Leif's court as a representative of Thracian interests. His refusal to continue fighting for King Travant was not held against him by the people at large. Thus he was in good standing with them during the era of reconstruction. He was visited frequently by Father Corpul of Edda, even after his true parents resurfaced.
Shanan and Patty: The kingdom of Isaac was quickly liberated from the Empire's despotic reign, but during the successor to the throne's absence, the people lived their days in anxiety. Thus, there was great joy upon the victory of the Liberation war and King Shanan's return. He devoted himself to the reconstruction of his country, and aimed at making it wealthy by improving cultural exchanges. His young wife was a great boon in this department. While her age raised a few eyebrows, no one could deny her knowledge of finances and ways to make money. She soon came to be seen as an essential partner in King Shanan's plans, and so her relative youth was ignored. Isaac was once called the Soil of the Eastern Barbarians, but before long, it become the superior nation of Jugdral.
Ulster and Julia: Ulster became Isaac's official ambassador to Belhalla, where he courted Julia for the better part of two years. Eventually, they decided that their new dynamic worked, and things had been mostly settled in their respective homelands and so they were wed. Together, they bore three daughters, much to Larcei's jealousy. Together, they all helped to form one King Seliph's strongest pillars of support, as well as one of King Shanan's, helping to firmly link the two rival nations.
Roddleven: He never let go of his sister's memory, with his son being named after her and his other children given similar names. This made his relationship with his wife rather tumultuous, especially due to the circumstances surrounding their union. For the rest of his life, he threw himself into Isaac's reconstruction, but whether or not he was ever really happy... is up for debate.
Radney: Killed Chapter 10 Remembering the Light. She was never forgotten by her comrades, and a few locations and people were named in her honor.
Ares and Leen: After its civil war, Agustria was annexed by Granville and was under the supervision of a strict and despotic administration. Thus, the establishment of a new united nation was the wish of everyone. That wish was entrusted to Eldigan's house of Nordion. Ares's return to the country was met with wild enthusiasm, the people finding in him the aura of King Eldigan in his young days. While there were a few difficulties in adjusting his wife to castle life, the concerns that they were most worried about soon were permanently resolved. Both of her parent resurfaced alive after the war, her father's identity and her delivery of healthy quadruplets, (with the first and third being boys) and subsequent survival of the experience at once erased any doubts about her worthiness as Queen of Agustria. While Father Claude died soon after his reappearance, Sylvia got to make up for not being able to raise her children by helping to raise her grandchildren.
Delmund and Salann: The knight Delmund took his sweetheart to Nordion and took it over in Ares's stead. While he remained coarse, his tone softened with age. It helped that he finally got some proper closure with his mother. Early in his reign, she was discovered in a petrified state within the halls of Nordion. As for his families, while his companions expected for his children to be a mess of nasty personalties, he and Salann actually proved to be surprisingly competent parents and raised stable individuals. Stable to the point where their oldest son became known as "the kindly knight" well renowned for his charity and sense of chivalry, to the utter bewilderment of anyone who knew his parents. With them helping King Ares, Agustria became one of Granville's most influential partners and had unprecedented development.
Ced and Teeny: He at long last returned to his country, succeeded to the throne, and devoted himself with all his strength to the reconstruction of the devastated country. He established strong trade ties with the kingdom of Granville, and especially with House Freege. Due to Duke Arthur's marriage to his sister, and his eventual marriage to Lady Teeny, the two became eternally linked, and Silessian ambassadors have been housed there ever since. Soon, Silesse gained a reputation for being an open country, welcoming refugees and those who wanted a fresh start in life, thanks to King Ced's liberal and foreign favoring policies.
Femina: Returned to Silesse with her boyfriend who she eventually wed. She eventually became a captain of the pegasus knights under King Ced. She remained good friends with Duke Faval of Jungby for the rest of her life, even getting him to teach her a little archery.
Arthur and Fee: It took a bit longer than expected, but Arthur did eventually take over as Duke of Freege. At first, his emotional instability caused problems with his rulership potential and his relationships, but eventually two things changed this. One was the reappearance of his parents in his life. His father was found in a petrified state in a dark corner of Belhalla's basement and was recovered. Miraculously, he got his mother back as well, but at the cost of the complete disintegration of the Valkyrie Staff and of Father Claude. The other change in his life came after Fee made a complaint to Nanna. Arthur had been correct in asserting that he really wasn't that great of a husband. His emotional trauma was so severe, he never even consummated the marriage after a couple of years had passed, and Fee had become jealous of her companions and their children. Realizing that Arthur still had demons, Leif brought up his idea of confronting Firinne. Arthur did so and finally got some emotional closure. His son Merlin was born within the next year, and his daughter Erin the year after.
Amid: Never satisfied with his lot in life, Amid went wandering the continent, picking fights wherever he went. Around five years after the liberation war, he dropped out of historical records entirely. Nobody knows if he died young in a fight, or if something else entirely happened to him.
Linda: She was content to live a life of obscurity, traveling from court to court after the war. Eventually, she accepted a proposal and settled down, simply satisfied with the normality of her life.
Corpul: Led the city of Edda well in its revival with his somewhat childishly naive but wholehearted spiritual fervor. The reappearance of his birth father and obtaining some advice from him before his death helped. Often, he was asked if those of Loptyr decent should truly be forgiven and granted grace after everything, and always he proclaimed that they should be, and he seemed to lead by example. He eventually married a rather quiet woman who seemed rather determined not to talk at all about her past or family history. When rumors arose that she was of Loptyr decent, he made no attempts to deny this or quash the rumors. His followers took this as an ultimate expression of practicing what he preached.
Johan and Larcei: The two were married at Darna after the war. Despite a few doubts, it all worked out in the end. Together, they rebuilt House Dozel's reputation so that it represented what it was always supposed to, strength and loyalty. As for the heirs to the house, Larcei had twins of her own, both male. Upon discovering this, she is noted to have declared "Oh you little traitors! I carried you for nine months, and you both came out as boys!" and her husband is noted as responding "Well... at least you know that this will be a pair of boys that will be raised to treated women properly." While she was always a bit jealous of her brother and her nieces over this, she still loved her boys as shown when once, during a small anti-noble revolt, the terrorists made the mistake of taking them. After she slaughtered them, nobody made such a mistake again. She kept her boys safe and she did eventually got what she wanted. Soon after this incident, she had her own little girl.
Faval: He took over Jungby and was noted as being a very street savvy and relatable ruler. He was known for his will to work alongside and take advice from just about anybody that he interacted with, no matter what their social standing was. He thus became very liked by the common man, and many were more than willing to hand their daughters over to him, if he so desired, as Duke Faval was noted to be the noble who took the longest to find a spouse. It wasn't until well over ten years after the war that he finally took a bride, many suspected that it was because his heart yearned for someone else. It was also widely speculated that he wouldn't have married at all if his mother hadn't been found in the Thracian village of Fianna and subsequently had several long conversations with her son about the direction of his life.
Lester and Laylea: They were wed soon after the liberation war. While there were some who badmouthed his bride, they soon regretted it when they fell victim to some spectacular pranks. Lord Lester became well known and regarded for his jovial nature and sense of humor, and he had reason to have it. His father was discovered to be the third and final member of Sigurd's companions who had been petrified by the Loptyr cult. With his recovery, he had his complete family behind him, but he never rubbed it in. Due to how well liked he was, the people were glad for him because as a result, he helped to bring them joy.
Oifey: The holy knight managed to properly resurrect his old home, bringing it back to its old glory under King Seliph's reign. After marrying Chalphy's caretaker, he became King Seliph's strongest pillar of support in the rebuilt Granville. Tales of his battle tactics and steadfast loyalty are still widely shared to this day.
Seliph and Lana: As for the Kingdom of Granville's Belhalla Dynasty, thanks to the overwhelming support of the people, Seliph was officially hailed as king. He poured his strength into the reconstruction of the country and the peace of the continent, aiming at the realization of a wealthy world, free of discrimination and domination. Though he did have take a firm hand from time to time, such as in the case of Verdane. Even under the Empire's despotic reign, the country hadn't been taking into account and abandoned. After the war, King Seliph went on an expedition there and restored public order. The people at large were grateful and wished for his direct rule. Holding an attachment to the country of his mother's birth, Seliph accepted, thus making it the Territorial Kingdom of Verdane. Lana was by his side throughout, helping him keep calm and in control of his actions, even when he needed to be harsh. Even as queen, she would often show up to help in the infirmaries, and was widely loved for it. They were regarded as the Holy Queen Lana and the Holy King Seliph.
These noble youths, who had fought against all odds so hard for so long had finally attained peace. They were, fo the most part, all happy in the end. For at long last they had fulfilled the dreams of their forefathers and brought to Jugdral something that it hadn't known in a long while. True peace. In the end, this was a holy war that could truly go down in the annals of history as a true victory for justice.
-Fin.
And there you have it, at long last, Crusaders Reborn has come to a close! A huge thank you to my readership and those who have been following along for so long. You have made this all worth it. Even when I got tired of writing and wanted to move on, I still got enjoyment out of writing because I knew you guys were still getting enjoyment out of it. I just want to say, thank you for your support, it's been quite a ride. When I first started to write this tale, I was a high school graduate who just wanted to practice his writing skills before he entered college and entered as an English major. This was simply a little project that was supposed to take a few months, and then I could move onto other fanfics and original content. I never imagined that it would last as long as it did. Now, I'm a bit more confident in my writing ability, though much more aware of my own flaws and frequent mistakes in my writing habits.
I have also changed as a person. I'm more a bit more self-reliant, self-confident, and I no longer have the grudge against my family that I had when I was first starting college. Which I am set to finish in December. Wow... while this story will never be my magnum opus, due to the sheer amount of mistakes, shifts in tone and style over three years, and to much experimentation, "Crusaders Reborn" will always have a place in my heart. I'm saving this story as a document in my computer so that I'll always have a copy, and I think that later down the line, if I really do make it as a proper writer, I may recycle the character elements/arcs that I created that really worked, because some of them I am genuinely proud of.
So, the question some of you may be asking is, what's next for Cyber Emblem? I know he's thrown out a few of his ideas over the years, but those are bound to have changed over time. Does he have a plan? The answer is, I have plenty of plans and possibilities flinging about in my brain, just not necessarily any of them are of the "Yes. This is DEFINITELY what I'm doing next" variety. So I'm going to share the possibilities now, and we shall see where life takes me. If you are here just for the story and my parting words, and don't want to see me ramble on about possibilities then stop reading now. That's all the important things that I have to say except for the easter eggs about this story in the next paragraph. I hope you guys enjoyed the story and its ending, and thank you for your readership. If you are interested, then read on!
Note: things in bold from here on are edits made in December of 2018, about seven months later.
So, I imagine that one of the first questions that would be asked is about the sequel and whether it shall actually happen. I still intend to follow up on the exact fates of the parents in "The Fall of Our Fathers" and to go into greater detail about what was related in the individual character endings in a sequel story, just not right away, I want to take a break from writing about Jugdral. I may go back and do some edits to the story, and maybe erase some of my Author's notes, as I realize they maybe got a bit to personal at times, but for now, I'm done.
As a side note, if you think the Loptyr twist from last chapter was sequel bait... it wasn't. I always thought that the Loptyr cult and Grima's cult were to similar for it to be coincidental, so I always intended for it to be revealed that the two were connected. It's just that the revelation of Grima's origins last year changed my plans on how. Originally, the idea was the Grima was some sort of reincarnation of Loptyr, with his official origin, I had to make some changes, and I actually think that just with a few sentences I made Grima a bit more compelling of a villain.
As for his connection to Medeus... as soon as I read on the wiki that Loptyr was an Earth Dragon, I thought "Ok, Medeus definitely knew about his mindset, and it definitely influenced how his opinion on humans changed." I really don't think that it's that hard to believe that Loptyr left SOMETHING behind to whisper in his ear, as for making Loptyr the father of Medeus... how else can you explain how powerful Loptyr is? I was originally going to say that he was Medeus's GRAND-father but... i don't know, something about that felt off, so I changed it to father.
Also I want to say, since I like stories with complex connections, and I'd like to think that all the Fire Emblem games are connected in some way, I'm going to say that part of Loptyr's anger towards the humans came because he bore witness to the Scouring from the Eliibe games. As for the Tellius games... either they are in a different hemisphere and the months and directions were reversed to match what most people think of as normal and are thus on the same planet as the first 5 games or... the Tellius games are some famous legend or tale by the time of Awakening, and Priam was pulling his connection to Ike out of his ass. As for Magvel, I'm saying that's an alternate version of Valentia, and the demon king was inspired by someone discovering Grima's skull/hearing his description from Alm and friends after they fought him in Shadows of Valentia. Basically, it's a legend based on real life locations in this world, but happens to be real through the Outrealms, explaining how Chrom recognized them.
As for non Easter eggs and non-sequel work, here is what I plan on doing. I have three ideas for ongoing series. Two are based upon pre-existing franchises, and the other is something of my own creation. I'll get to talking about the former in a moment, but for now I want to say something about the later. It is based on idea I came up with in high school, threw to the wayside, but have decided to resurrect. I wrote the initial chapter for the school writing journal and submitted it as a short story. They didn't publish it, not because it was bad, but because it didn't read like a short story. They actually expressed that it was an entertaining read and they thought it was really good. They aren't the only ones, whenever I tell people my ideas, they think they are very creative and that I should make it into a proper story.
Thus, while I fully intend to continue writing fanfiction, however for right now and this summer especially, I intend for my writing focus to be centered primarily around original ideas. I really need to do this, it's almost time for me to graduate, and I need to get my writing out there, so it's time for me to shift focus. I have been actually pooling ideas for this concept while I've been finishing C.R. and some of the ideas that I said I might recycle would be used there. If I get into the details of that, we'll be here all day, so just wish me luck while I try to branch out and do something new. Of course, I do intend to alternate it with more fanfiction writings.
I've already covered what my other two ideas for ongoing series are, Transformers and Smash Brothers and that in those cases, I intend to split them into smaller arcs/seasons/ individual stories in order to make them more manageable. Though I will say for the later, the idea has expanded in my mind to a ridiculous extent, to the point where its not so much a Smash Brothers story arc as much as a universal crossover of just about everything with a bunch of mini plots. Yea, I think it's pretty clear to you guys by now what kind of stories I like, and doing that would allow me play with them in their proper setting. But as I said, those two ideas are going to be put to the side for now.
Yea, stress over my final semester of college and graduation made me procrastinate like no tomorrow. Didn't help that my morale took a serious hit about a month into my senior seminar. I still have these ambitions, but I'm kinda laughing at them now.
I do, however intend to do one-shots and maybe a couple of mini-arcs this summer, alternating them with my original work. So if you guys hear from me this summer, it's probably going to be just this shorter fare, so let me express those ideas, as they are the most likely to come to fruition, or at least soon. I have several Fire Emblem related ideas, and a few non-FE related ideas that aren't connected to the massive crossover story in my head (as of yet), so I'm going to express those first, then relate my FE ideas.
First of all, early on I had a desire to write a series of one-shot fics about characters from each of the first six or seven Final Fantasy games, but I've forgotten what my ideas were for all but II and VI. Richard Highwind's last stand and a story about that teenage couple from that village Terra wound up helping orphans in. Like, 12 people have read the former, so no way is the latter one happening. I'm disappointed, it was my first non-FE fic since I made this account, and I was proud of it.
The lore can of worms that Kirby Star Allies opened up got me interested in that series again, and I have a couple of nebulous ideas about the origins of Marx, Gooey, and maybe one or two other characters. They might connect with the crossover story, but as I said, the idea is vague right now so... yea. I have a bunch of ideas for various franchises, but considering my current rate... I decided that if I ever get around to it, I'd just compile them into sub-arcs of the bigger "Smash Bros" fic.
As for the last idea... I've never played Sonic Forces, but I've seen plenty of people mock Infinite's backstory. I took one look at it and said "Ok... they are only making fun of it because we didn't see what he was like before his breakdown. There is enough information here as it is to piece together a compelling backstory so... I could totally just extend his backstory and include that scene from the game without any changes, and make it not laughable. So I may do that. Same principal as the above.
Those are my non-FE related ideas, here are my FE related ideas. A while ago, when FE Heroes first introduced the support system, I started writing a fic based off of that. I didn't wind up liking it part way through and junked the idea. So it's not happening, I'm only bringing it up because I had mentioned it previously and I wanted to make absolutely sure that I confirmed what happened to that.
But around the same time, I expressed a different idea for an FE crossover fic. A grand tournament of FE characters, inspired by the Tournament of Power arc in "Dragon Ball Super"... I actually still want to do that, so I might make an entire mini story out of that. It would be an excuse plot of course, some random all powerful beings got bored, observed the worlds of FE and gained interest and decided to host a tournament with them in it. Of course writing it might be tricky due to the sheer number of characters, but there is a lot of potential for a lot of fun scenes. If it turns out well, I could even do a follow up story that is a survival battle, where a less morally righteous group of those beings make clones of all the FE characters, heroes and villains, and throw them into the wild, sorta like Hunger games style. A story with a different kind of potential.
As for individual standalone stories, here are my ideas. Some are more nebulous than others. Bolded Stuff I actually did. Underlined I don't think I'm going to after all.
1: Catria in love and actually getting a happy ending.
2. A story about Klein and Tate getting together
3. Two potential stories where Linde winds up with a guy. One with Kliff from SoV and one with Arlen from MoE
4. Navarre and Phina's backstories.
5. A bit of a psychological analysis story, where one of Faye's friends (maybe Kliff) gets tired of her unhealthy obsession with Alm and tries to correct it once he discovers a spell that could potentially redirect her feelings from Alm to her husband.
6. An explanation of whatever happened to Marisha (the first healer you get in book 2 of Mystery of the Emblem)
7. Noah and Fir's relationship
8. An explanation of how Zelot became king
9. How Dart lost his memories (the incident that caused his head trauma).
10. A story about Lute and her son.
11. A story about Rhys and Mia.
Well, those are my ideas, and now, I've finally run out of things that I want to say. A huge thank you to those who stuck with me to the very end, and I hope you enjoyed the wild, unpredictable ride that was "Crusaders Reborn"!